CYCLING: Win for super-vet Phil

WITHAM Wheelers super-vet Phil Etches won his first LVRC road race of the season at Norwell on Sunday.

Phil triumphed in the EFG category in which the race was run at a fast and then slow pace as fast attacks were quickly snuffed out by the chasing peloton who then brought the speed down. After three laps a decisive break was initiated by Mick Allen with Phil quickly jumping across, and five other riders also managed to jump on to make a seven-man break.

The break worked well to keep away from the peloton and with only half a lap to go, repeated attacks were fired off by Chris Gunter and Allen with Phil just able to hold on, and this became the winning three-man break.

With the 200m to go flag in sight, Phil showed his sprinting ability by jumping early with 400m remaining and was never in danger of being caught by the finish line. Clubmate Tony Mendham sat in with the peloton throughout and finished comfortably in the main bunch.

In the category CD race, a six-man break got away on the first lap and by the end of lap two had established a lead of two minutes.

Chris Samler and Mark Colclough just failed to get into the break, despite chasing hard for half a lap and the peloton, containing Phil Atherton and Rob Johnson, eventually closed them down. Attacks from the thinning peloton came every lap but none were allowed to get far down the road and at the end of the 5.5-lap race, covering 52 miles, there was a mass sprint for the minor placings with Chris, Mark, Phil and Rob all in the bunch and managing to secure top 20 positions.

l Winner of Witham Wheelers’ latest handicap league 10-mile time trial was junior Peter Cocker in 23.41, with Neil Sentance the only other rider under 24 minutes. Fourteen-year-old Karl Baillie continued to show promise, recording 24.22 for fifth overall.

Fifteen riders registered personal bests, with Nathan O’Leary knocking almost two minutes of his previous best. Mick Egner leads the handicap league by 30 points from Dave Moulds and James Carter, both on 25.